Uss Higgins

City commissioners have approved spending $210,000 on social, cultural and promotional groups for the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Commissioners agreed to spend $136,356 on 14 social organizations as recommended by the Community Services Board. A total of 25 organizations had requested $409,924. The commission also agreed to spend $18,644 on four cultural organizations as recommended by the advisory board. Six organizations had requested $68,000. Commissioners also approved $55,000 for nine promotional organizations as recommended by the Economic Development Advisory Board.

Two military motorcades have marked Christine Higgins' life. The first was for the burial of her father, Marine Col. William Higgins, who was lynched in 1990 by pro-Iranian Hezbollah terrorists after spending two years as their hostage. Pictures of Higgins' body hanging from a rope shocked the world and galvanized American support for anti-terrorist activities. The second was for Saturday's commissioning of the USS Higgins, the Navy's newest guided missile destroyer and a floating memorial to the slain United Nations peacekeeper.

The visit of a Navy destroyer that was commissioned in Fort Lauderdale one year ago this week will be celebrated tonight at the Las Olas Riverfront. Officers and sailors from the USS Higgins will meet with local dignitaries and the public at 8:30 p.m. at Iguana Cantina for an event sponsored by Broward Navy Days. The Higgins, docked at Port Everglades, is named after the late Marine Col. Richard Higgins. Higgins' bruised face became a fixture on U.S. television after his 1988 kidnapping by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The visit of a Navy destroyer that was commissioned in Fort Lauderdale one year ago this week will be celebrated tonight at the Las Olas Riverfront. Officers and sailors from the USS Higgins will meet with local dignitaries and the public at 8:30 p.m. at Iguana Cantina for an event sponsored by Broward Navy Days. The Higgins, docked at Port Everglades, is named after the late Marine Col. Richard Higgins. Higgins' bruised face became a fixture on U.S. television after his 1988 kidnapping by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Two military motorcades have marked Christine Higgins' life. The first was for the burial of her father, Marine Col. William Higgins, who was lynched in 1990 by pro-Iranian Hezbollah terrorists after spending two years as their hostage. Pictures of Higgins' body hanging from a rope shocked the world and galvanized American support for anti-terrorist activities. The second was for Saturday's commissioning of the USS Higgins, the Navy's newest guided missile destroyer and a floating memorial to the slain United Nations peacekeeper.

Before even the first big-time event at the new Broward arena _ Celine Dion's gig on Saturday _ things started rocking in the House-That-Wayne-Built _ and few people knew about it. As thousands of I-595ers checked out the sports palace during HockeyFest on Sept. 19, frantic K-9 cops and firefighters searched for a bomb. About 5 p.m., a man on a cell phone called 911 and announced: "There's a bomb in the new center." The officers turned up a suspicious duffel bag stuffed with six-packs of beer in an employee locker room.

FORT LAUDERDALE City commissioners have approved spending $220,000 on social services, cultural and promotional groups for the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Commissioners agreed to spend $136,356 on 14 social services organizations as recommended by the Community Services Board. A total of 25 organizations had requested $409,924. The commission also agreed to spend $18,644 on four cultural organizations as recommended by the advisory board. Six organizations had requested $68,000.

Marine Col. William R. (Rich) Higgins, a much-decorated American warrior, went to the Middle East on a mission of peace in 1987 and came home a martyred hero more than four agonizing years later. On Saturday, his ultimate sacrifice will be appropriately honored when the Navy's newest destroyer is commissioned in South Florida. The USS Higgins, an $800 million guided-missile warship with anti-submarine armanent, arrived in Port Everglades Monday, one month after its christening at the Bath, Maine, shipyard where it was built.

The gun mount rotated forward, the torpedo tubes fired air slugs, and the whistle blared overhead as the U.S. Navy commissioned its newest ship, the USS Bainbridge, at Port Everglades on a postcard-perfect Saturday morning. Susan Bainbridge Hay, the sponsor of the ship named for her great-great-great-grandfather, stood at the podium on the vessel and gave the crew the traditional first order to "man the ship and bring her to life." From the dock, the Navy band played Anchor's Aweigh as nearly 300 young men and women in crisp white uniforms lined the rails behind the red, white, and blue streamers on the ship.

With AutoNation stocks plunging to depths that few thought possible, it was just a matter of time until company co-CEO and business swashbuckler Steve Berrard got help. We're told the $1 million-a-year Berrard -- a faithful H. Wayne Huizenga lieutenant -- spent parts of last week in the swanky New Age retreat of guru Deepak Chopra to learn the principles of Middle Eastern meditation and bond with the Great Man. So is this the birth of a new gentler, kinder, stress-free Steve Berrard? "Hardly," said wife Pam Berrard, when Steve didn't return calls for comments.

Before even the first big-time event at the new Broward arena _ Celine Dion's gig on Saturday _ things started rocking in the House-That-Wayne-Built _ and few people knew about it. As thousands of I-595ers checked out the sports palace during HockeyFest on Sept. 19, frantic K-9 cops and firefighters searched for a bomb. About 5 p.m., a man on a cell phone called 911 and announced: "There's a bomb in the new center." The officers turned up a suspicious duffel bag stuffed with six-packs of beer in an employee locker room.

City commissioners have approved spending $210,000 on social, cultural and promotional groups for the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Commissioners agreed to spend $136,356 on 14 social organizations as recommended by the Community Services Board. A total of 25 organizations had requested $409,924. The commission also agreed to spend $18,644 on four cultural organizations as recommended by the advisory board. Six organizations had requested $68,000. Commissioners also approved $55,000 for nine promotional organizations as recommended by the Economic Development Advisory Board.

There is the history that you read in books, and then there's the kind that makes people remember the man for whom the USS Higgins is named. The U.S. Navy's newest destroyer, which cruised into Port Everglades on Monday for a week of commissioning festivities, is almost like a floating museum to the memory of William "Rich" Higgins, a Marine colonel who was kidnapped by pro-Iranian terrorists in 1988 and subsequently murdered. A painting of Higgins, as well as his dress regalia sabers, hang in the ward room where the ship's officers dine.

Norman Ross remembers when his dad had two arms, remembers when he was able to walk. He also remembers the agonizing pain his father suffered, the daily morphine injections, and how when he finally died at the age of 33, he had already lost his legs and an arm to poisonous gas. Ross was only 9 when his father finally succumbed to his war injuries, but he remembers. "I guess he wanted to be a Yankee Doodle Dandy," says the 81-year-old Delray Beach resident, explaining why his father, the son of Russian immigrants, rushed off to enlist in World War I. Michael Rosenberg (his son later shortened the name to Ross)